Purification and characterization of an extradiol dioxygenase which preferentially acts on 4-methylcatechol

Abstract

A catechol 2,3-dioxygenase (C230) was purified to apparent homogeneity from Pseudomonas putida SU10 through several purification steps consisting of ammonium sulfate precipitation and chromatographies on DEAE 5PW, Superdex S-200, and Resource-Q. Gel filtration indicated a molecular mass under nondenaturing conditions of about 130 kDa. The enzyme has a subunit of 34 kDa as was determined by SDS-PAGE. These results suggest that the native enzyme is composed of four identical subunits. The N-terminal amino acid sequence (30 residues) of the enzyme has been determined and exhibits high identity with other extradiol dioxygenases. The reactivity of this enzyme towards catechol and methyl-substituted catechols is somewhat different from that seen for other catechol 2,3-dioxygenases, with 4-methylcatechol cleaved at a higher rate than catechol or 3-methylcatechol. K-m values of the enzyme for these substrates are between 3.5 and 5.7 M.